Twenty-three fifty-seven.
Twenty-three fifty-eight.
Zhou Qi’an was passionately sharpening his fork, each movement appearing steady-handed and ruthless, with an even greater sense of rhythm. In reality, his heart was not as steady as his outward appearance suggested. Once midnight struck, the danger in the instance would rise sharply, and Zhou Qi’an could already feel the surrounding temperature continuing to drop.
Sleepwalking.
In this state, the woman’s combat power would inevitably soar. Zhou Qi’an had other plans for the night; he had no desire to play any games with a madwoman, which would force him to use his blood-consuming holy artifact right at the start.
“Why isn’t she leaving yet?” Zhou Qi’an grumbled inwardly. As time passed, his movements quickened with his desire to drive her away, yet he couldn’t show any of it on his face.
He was uncomfortable, but the courtyard’s owner outside was even more so. The knife was getting sharper and sharper. The woman was already not far from Zhou Qi’an’s room and was directly facing the door. The distance that was meant to increase the psychological burden had now become a disadvantage. The light spilling from the holy artifact stabbed directly into her eyes. It was impossible to stare at the door as she had at the beginning. On the contrary, the feeling from the holy artifact’s light was extremely uncomfortable, a faint searing sensation on her skin.
Twenty-three fifty-nine.
Just as Zhou Qi’an’s expression darkened and he prepared to change his strategy, the sound of sharpening abruptly stopped. When he looked up again, the woman outside the door had vanished. She had shouldered her stool and whetstone and strode back to the brick house opposite. Not long after, the sound of a closing door came from outside.
Zhou Qi’an quickly glanced at the time. Twenty seconds left. Once it was midnight, the woman could reappear at any moment. With no time to confirm more, he opened the door and swiftly slipped out. The courtyard gate leading outside was too old and would make a loud noise. Zhou Qi’an gave up on pushing it open and nimbly climbed the wall, managing to leave the courtyard smoothly just one second before midnight.
The moment he landed, he was slightly stunned. A thin mist filled the town, and the entire world was suffused with a faint red light. Following the source of the bloody light, he saw a blood moon hanging high in the sky. The red, bloody light poured onto countless rooftops, making the entire town look as if it were submerged in a sea of blood.
Zhou Qi’an swallowed and plunged into the demonic moonlight. A sneaky figure appeared on the silent bluestone path. As he moved, Zhou Qi’an frequently glanced left and right, trying to determine the locations of his other teammates. No matter the color, enough moonlight was a good thing.
Soon, he saw a crudely drawn hound sketched in chalk on one of the courtyard gates. Zhou Qi’an raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself: Yuan is here.
After a thought, he manipulated his white silk to wrap around the holy artifact and float it into the courtyard. A special golden light instantly illuminated the area. Inside the courtyard, Yuan was stunned. The golden light flashed and was gone. By the time she reacted and carefully pushed the door open, the white silk and holy artifact had already floated away.
Zhou Qi’an was already far away.
Yuan was taken aback. What did that mean? Should she follow or not? Should they run together? She tried to analyze the possible meaning Zhou Qi’an was conveying from various angles and finally settled on one possibility.
Meanwhile, Zhou Qi’an was still running frantically. Both sides were lined with low courtyards of roughly the same size. After sprinting forward for a distance, Zhou Qi’an quickly found Ying Yu’s residence. His location was simply too easy to find! Only this courtyard looked dilapidated at a glance, missing bricks and tiles. The iron ring on the door knocker was gone, and there were even fewer weeds at the entrance than at other houses.
The golden light was similarly fleeting. Ying Yu did not step out. He refilled his cup with tea, knowing that Zhou Qi’an had gone to find clues about the ghost.
“Just right…”
He could spare some time to first study the anomalies of the town itself.
Outside the courtyard adjacent to Ying Yu’s, there was no one, but a shadow lay there. It was undoubtedly Shen Zhiyi’s place. Zhou Qi’an just glanced over and pointed ahead, indicating that he would go on first and not to mind him. This was the message he was conveying to his other teammates as well: He would handle the ghost. His teammates each had their own strengths and could use the night to freely do other things.
Silent Town was not small. In his subsequent run, Zhou Qi’an did not find the residences of his boss, the university student, or Red Hood.
“Looks like I wasn’t specifically targeted,” he secretly concluded. When he had been singled out for a private room earlier, his first reaction was that only he had been isolated. Now it seemed that wasn’t necessarily the case. Given the structure of the houses in the town, each one couldn’t accommodate many people. With a ghost hidden in the team, the staff would certainly have scattered everyone’s residences far apart to facilitate the ghost’s activities.
Having figured this out, Zhou Qi’an was about to put all his effort into a mad dash when a voice suddenly came from the depths of the fog:
“The weather is dry, be careful with fire—”
Crap.
The night watchman!
Zhou Qi’an jolted and sped up, ducking into another alley to take a detour, but the voice grew closer and closer.
“The weather is dry, be careful with fire—”
The voice was already less than twenty meters away. A bloated human figure loomed in the bloody fog. He had clearly been running towards the alley for a while, yet he was still on the same road. It was a ghost wall.
Zhou Qi’an closed his eyes and thought to himself, “My luck is really something else.”
In the prompt, the woman only wielded her knife while sleepwalking at midnight, yet she had been blocking his door right before midnight. If not for that, with his speed, he would never have run into the night watchman. Silent Town was not small, yet he managed to run right into it shortly after leaving.
Zhou Qi’an pressed his lips together, feeling a thick, invisible malice. Could it be that his residence was very close to the night watchman?
The figure was still approaching, the sound of the gong more distant and muffled each time, as if coming from another world. The longer he was delayed, the more variables would arise. Zhou Qi’an had only one principle: before entering the museum, he would try his best not to use the blood-burning holy artifact.
“Whatever, brave people get to enjoy the world first.”
Zhou Qi’an cheered himself on internally. After a brief weighing of options, he took out the lucky item he had traded with A-Ling in the last instance.
A 28% luck boost on the spot—I choose you!
Without further hesitation, Zhou Qi’an directly activated the lucky item and, in one smooth motion, released the lighthouse. The sudden brightness made the night watchman approaching in the fog slow down for half a beat.
[You have successfully been immune to the ghost wall for three seconds]
Under the blessing of luck, the lighthouse’s immunity effect was successfully activated.
Perfect.
Zhou Qi’an raised an eyebrow. It seemed his luck wasn’t hopeless yet. This time, he had no more worries and sped up, dashing straight ahead. As he passed the night watchman, Zhou Qi’an glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. A very round face with strangely colored skin and hollow eyes, both of which were covered with white cataracts. This ghost was too abstractly designed.
He sucked in a cold breath and, amidst the thick stench of corpses, rushed past without stopping. The night watchman stood frozen in place for a moment, probably not expecting someone to break the ghost wall and not ask him anything.
Zhou Qi’an had seized on this point, which was why he dared to charge through recklessly. According to the clues given by the game’s prompt, under normal circumstances, after breaking the ghost wall, one would certainly try to get clues about the mole from the night watchman. But he still ran forward without looking back. The lighthouse only provided three seconds of immunity. Given the screwed up state of the current instance, he would definitely get trapped by the ghost wall again while getting clues. Once trapped, it could very well be a death rule.
The side effects of the lucky item had not yet appeared. The benefits, however, were obvious. The night watchman didn’t chase after him, and he didn’t encounter any other trouble along the way.
In the distance, the faint outline of a mountain was visible. The further he ran, the wetter and colder the air became. Inhaling it felt like his lungs would freeze.
Zhou Qi’an sprinted towards the mountain’s outline. From the moment he received the mission, he had decided on his strategy: impersonate the mole. Therefore, his destination was even clearer: the back mountain.
His newly evolved spirit body could help him intuitively determine the place with the densest yin energy. That was surely where the other powerful ghost was sealed.
The moment he truly set foot in the mountain forest, Zhou Qi’an slowed his pace.
“It’s unknown when the mole will go to the back mountain, but it definitely won’t be too early.” If it were too early, it would be a dead end for the players. The game would certainly give players time to gather clues. Running to the back mountain now, the probability of bumping into the mole was extremely low.
He stood at the foot of the mountain, waiting for his breathing to calm down slightly, and tried to perceive his surroundings. The spirit body was indeed very effective. The wind blowing from a certain direction made his bones exceptionally cold. Following the direction of the wind, Zhou Qi’an carefully walked that way. There was no light along the path. Already dressed in black, he now almost merged with the night.
He didn’t know how long he walked in such an environment. When he was about halfway up the mountain, an unmarked burial mound, exposed on the mountainside, unexpectedly came into view. From here on, what surrounded the mountainside could hardly be called yin energy, but rather a baleful aura. Not to mention the invisible resistance that made breathing very difficult, the area was deserted. As far as the eye could see, there were small, unmarked graves everywhere. Some skeletons were even directly exposed under the moonlight. Amidst the countless burial mounds lay a coffin tightly locked with iron chains.
The blood coffin exuded a sky-high baleful aura. The original color of the wood had been replaced by red paint, a paint that must have been mixed with real blood, emitting a smell that made one’s brows furrow. Below the iron chains, a total of nine talismans replaced long nails to seal the coffin. Cranes about to take flight were carved on the coffin, and next to the cranes, the character ‘默’ (mò – silent) could be vaguely seen.
Related to the Silent Museum?
Zhou Qi’an suppressed his doubt and slightly adjusted his expression. He strode forward quickly and said, “I’m here.” The back mountain was not part of the town, so he once again enjoyed the pleasure of speaking.
The mission mentioned that the mole would come to the back mountain to ask about a treasure. There must be communication between the two ghosts. The only gamble was whether the powerful ghost in the blood coffin and the ghost hidden among the players knew each other. Zhou Qi’an was inclined to believe they didn’t. After all, one was sealed. Looking at the traces of time left on the iron chains outside the blood coffin, it had probably been sealed for a very long time.
He was very confident in his un-disguised disguise. Since the ghost hidden among the players appeared in human form, his appearance here in human form should not arouse suspicion.
Not long after he spoke, all the moonlight shining on the mountain seemed to settle on this coffin. In an instant, a phantom-like blood shadow floated up like steaming clouds. It stopped roughly at the position of the foremost chain. Two black holes in the blood shadow stared at Zhou Qi’an’s position.
Immense pressure poured down. Zhou Qi’an instinctively felt enveloped by an invisible force, and his heartbeat unconsciously quickened. Forcing down the urge to retreat, he stared fixedly at the blood shadow, choosing his words with extreme care.
“Another tourist has come.”
There were traces of other players in the room. The word “another” would not be wrong.
“I’ve come for the treasure.” Zhou Qi’an then lowered his stance, but only in words; his body showed no trace of fear. A sinister wind blew, chilling to the bone. Zhou Qi’an almost couldn’t stop himself from shivering. The blood shadow was still staring at him, saying nothing. The eerie silence invisibly increased the pressure.
A strange creaking sound came. Out of the corner of his eye, the surrounding soil was moving. Zhou Qi’an personally saw a finger bone emerge from the ground.
Dude, are you giving me the middle finger?
In the blink of an eye, no less than a dozen hand bones shot out from the grave soil, one of them near Zhou Qi’an’s trouser leg.
“!!”
Zhou Qi’an used the greatest willpower of his life not to move his leg. The corpses under the ground were awakening. It was clear that although the blood shadow could not leave the coffin, it could control the surrounding dead.
He timely uttered the crucial third sentence: “Give me the treasure. After the kill, I’ll… bring it to you.” His deliberately lowered voice, in a broken tone, was distorted with a hint of horror.
Zhou Qi’an did not avoid the blood shadow’s gaze at all. It would be good enough if ghosts didn’t kill each other; why would one give away a treasure for no reason? There must be some other transaction involved. In a instance, players had to learn to position themselves correctly—either as an offering or a sacrifice. He speculated that it should be the same this time.
After fully stating his intentions, the white bones that had briefly feigned reanimation paused. Zhou Qi’an held a black card between two slender fingers of his left hand.
“There are at least several hundred thousand spirit money in the card.”
He also took out a thick stack of spirit money from his piggy bank. “Should I burn it for you, or use this money to buy something for you?” As long as the client needed it, he could fold it into villas, cars, or even handsome men and beautiful women.
The blood shadow stared at him for a long while before its hollow voice was carried over by the wailing mountain wind, giving one goosebumps. “Come forward.”
Zhou Qi’an stood his ground.
“Come forward—”
The blood shadow repeated, this time with a slight urgency. The chill made Zhou Qi’an’s scalp tingle.
“Present the paper money, and the treasure can be bestowed upon you directly.”
You assassin.
Zhou Qi’an cursed inwardly: he knew that all the lucky items in his life had to be repaid. The confidence he had to come and impersonate a ghost was based on two items to prove his identity: one was the black card—a living person couldn’t possibly have such a large amount of spirit money—and the other was his heart.
The five-star fish eye was about to resume its business period and should be mostly revived by now. When he first entered the instance, the goat-headed person had been strangely watching him, which meant the fish eye’s aura had leaked out a bit. A ghost inhabiting his body was the best proof of his identity. Unfortunately… it too easily attracted the covetousness of other ghosts.
He had happened to encounter a greedy ghost. He first made a promise, then offered to give money. After doing both, the pressure in the air not only didn’t decrease, but the number of skeletons emerging from the ground increased. He would have to be a fool to approach.
Zhou Qi’an’s voice turned cold. He stood his ground and waved the spirit money again. “Seeking treasure with a heavy reward.”
The mountain wind blew even more fiercely. A gust of wind from behind made him stumble forward, almost falling onto the coffin. The blood shadow transformed into a bloody hand and reached out.
A slender cane appeared in Zhou Qi’an’s hand before the hand could reach him. One end of the cane pressed against the coffin for support. In a flash, Zhou Qi’an regained his balance.
“Where’s the treasure? Tell me where the treasure is first!”
Putting away the cane, Zhou Qi’an suddenly seemed to change his mind and wisely prepared to step forward.
The blood shadow was just about to say something. But the moment Zhou Qi’an took a step forward, he violently pulled his leg back and then, without any warning, turned and ran.
The blood shadow showed the same expression as the night watchman—a flicker of astonishment appeared on its blurry face.
He ran.
He actually didn’t want the treasure and just ran?!
After a brief moment of astonishment, the white bones on the ground that had pretended to pause their movements suddenly sprang up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, all appearing under the blood moon. The sound of soil being broken continuously reached the ears of the person sprinting ahead.
Zhou Qi’an’s eyelids twitched several times. Not only did he run, he ran incredibly fast, almost catching up to and even surpassing the wind. Zhou Qi’an was not greedy. The buff from the lucky item had been used on the ghost wall. Trying to trick the treasure out of the blood shadow would not be easy. Taking another risk was not worth it. The blood shadow’s previous actions clearly showed it wanted to kill him and take his heart.
He had come out for nothing and wasted a lucky item, yet a smile slowly spread across Zhou Qi’an’s lips. The blood shadow at least did not doubt his identity as a ghost. He had not come empty-handed. If the next ghost who came to ask for the treasure came empty-handed, that would be interesting.
“And it will get even more interesting.”
As Zhou Qi’an was running, he seemed to see something in the distance. A smile immediately filled his eyes, and he sped away before the white bones could catch up.
Speed is paramount in war. The things from the ground ultimately failed to catch up to the man who shot out like an arrow. When the white bones re-rooted themselves in the soil, they trembled so much they were almost osteoporotic, seeming to be very afraid of this blood coffin.
“Useless!” a furious roar came from within the blood coffin. The iron chains on the coffin shook violently. The clanging changed from a rattle to a loud crash. The special material of the chains continued to make noise for a full quarter of an hour before gradually returning to calm. No matter how unwilling the blood shadow was, it could not break free from the seal and could only sink back into the coffin.
On the burial mound shrouded in bloody light, after Zhou Qi’an left, some time passed before sounds returned to the surroundings. In the dense forest, a petite figure appeared, walking nonstop towards the burial mound. The white bones in the ground emerged again, once again stirring restlessly. However, in this rustling, sinister wind, the hound next to the little girl suddenly swelled to several zhang high. Its long hair stood on end, and the flames all over its body made it look more like a gatekeeper dog from hell.
The little girl’s expression was cold. When she walked around the coffin, her lips were devoid of any human blood color. “I’m here.”
The ghost in the coffin: ???
The white bones also slowed their movements.
The little girl keenly sensed that the atmosphere was not right. She paused, holding her breath to observe her surroundings. Dense white bones, broken wooden tablets, weeds growing on skeletons, and… the little girl’s expression changed. There was a string of footprints on the ground! The footprints were still clear, meaning someone had been here before her.
Someone else was impersonating a ghost?
Judging by the size of the footprints, plus her understanding of his style of doing things, she barely needed to think. Zhou Qi’an’s face suddenly appeared in her mind.
This is bad.
If the treasure had already been given to Zhou Qi’an, her coming here would be counterproductive. If it hadn’t, and Zhou Qi’an hadn’t succeeded, her chances were probably slim. Seeing these messy and dense footprints, especially those heading in the opposite direction, they were clearly not left by normal walking. There was an eighty percent chance that he had not taken the treasure.
Yuan really hadn’t expected that besides herself, Zhou Qi’an also had the ability to impersonate a ghost.
“Wait, this might not be a bad thing.”
The sealed ghost would definitely start to suspect someone was faking it. With more options, it would be interesting when the real ghost arrived.
Yuan suppressed her surprise and calmly began to spout nonsense. “My master should have been here. I am the ghost general under him. Has the treasure already been presented to my master?” The Black and White system in the Ghost Market and the 7/24 work schedule had taught her a lot. For example, when you see a ghost, you speak ghost language.
When she caught sight of the character for ‘silent’ on the coffin, Yuan proactively began to paint a big picture. “My master said that tomorrow we will carry you to the Silent Museum and help you obtain the position of museum curator. After that, the museum will be split fifty-fifty between us.”
The ghost in the coffin was suddenly stuffed with a big promise. Its whole ghostly being was stunned. Not just it, but even the white bones underground, which were on the verge of losing their ability to think, briefly froze.
Yuan said faintly, “My master’s intentions have been conveyed. You consider it carefully. I will come back later.”
Before she finished the last two words, she had already turned around. The girl and the dog ran wildly, neither willing to be outdone by the other.
By the time the legion of white bones reacted and were about to break out of the ground again, they had already run some distance. When Yuan left, she even maintained a bit of style, casually tossing out a useless item that could only create a slight illusion.
The ghost in the coffin was silent for a long time. Why did another ghost come? It kept replaying the previous scenes, trying to find clues, but whether it was the first one or the second one, each was stranger than the last.
Yuan and her hound were still running wildly down the mountain. In a more distant part of the mountain forest, a handsome man’s tie fluttered in the wind, its crimson tip appearing somewhat sharp. The boss stood quietly in one spot, not advancing any further. He had also originally come to make promises, but just before reaching the burial mound, he happened to see Yuan running away.
The soil under his feet was soft, and something was squirming. As the night passed, the back mountain became more and more dangerous. Not just the burial mound, but more and more skeletons on the mountain showed signs of reanimation. The boss’s gaze swept over indifferently. Suddenly, his five fingers formed a claw and pulled a zombie that was trying to sneak attack him out of the ground. When his nails went into the ground, they directly crushed the zombie’s brain. The boss expressionlessly toyed with the brain core. As he toyed with it, he stared at the zombie that had half-emerged from the ground, seemingly discovering something strange.
He directly pulled out the half-remains. The boss rarely frowned at things outside of work.
“A bit interesting.”
After examining the corpse, he toyed with the brain core and walked down the mountain.
The boss had some presence and had attracted the zombie’s attack. But not far from him, there was actually another tall and slender figure standing in the mountain forest. Neither the ghosts nor the boss had noticed.
Shen Zhiyi just glanced at the body pulled out by the boss and immediately understood the reason for his frown. His gaze swept over the blood coffin, the town, and the museum further away that ordinary people couldn’t see, sensing the presence of many living people. He had arrived at this instance first and could confirm that this was not a team battle instance. Under normal circumstances, inserting an anchor point would not attract so many players. The Whaling Association must have had a hand in it.
The game doesn’t support freeloaders; the Whaling Association itself would probably have to play the role of NPCs.
Should I kill all the NPCs I don’t like?
Qi’an doesn’t seem to like indiscriminate killing, even if the target is a ghost.
Shen Zhiyi turned and left, pondering the philosophical question of survival or death, completely unconcerned about who the real ghost coming tonight was. Whoever it was, with the first two gems as precedents, it would be their bad luck to show up.
The mountain wind howled. Time slowly passed in the forest shrouded in desolation and decay.
At three-thirty in the morning, an ethereal figure flitted through the jungle. The newcomer looked in all directions, constantly looking back to make sure no one was following. Only when he saw the blood coffin did he let out a long sigh of relief.
He opened his mouth: “I’m here.”
The blood shadow appeared on the coffin again. Seeing another so-called ghost coming, this time, it completely exploded with rage—
Another one, why is there another one!
Once, twice, and now a third time.
The entire graveyard began to become ‘lively’ amidst the yin energy. Skeletons drilled out of the ground one by one. The newcomer had not yet noticed the abnormality and hurriedly opened his mouth, “The treasure…”
Before he could finish, the blood shadow let out a roaring growl.
No money, no promises, and an unclear identity. This one was even worse than the first two.
“Get lost!”
No, go die!
Having learned from Zhou Qi’an’s and Yuan’s sudden escapes, this time, the blood shadow directly used its blood mist to secretly set up a barrier around them. A puff of foul air hit his face. The word “get lost” was deafening. The ghost who had come to make contact was stunned.
